Protecting troops at war's end

At night, the perimeter of the massive headquarters base for international forces in Helmand Province is ablaze with floodlights that could blind approaching enemy fighters.

In the last year of the NATO campaign, Camp Bastion-Leatherneck-Shorabak has become the lonely sun at the center of a soon-to-be extinct universe of foreign military bases in southwestern Afghanistan.

But security at the base complex housing the bulk of the dwindling coalition has never been more robust, military commanders said.

Task Force Belleau Wood, the U.S. and British-led unit of about 3,000 international troops responsible for securing the complex, was the beneficiary of added resources and attention in the aftermath of the September 2012 insurgent attack that killed two Marines based in Yuma, Ariz., and destroyed a fleet of Harrier jets.

Task Force Belleau Wood

Another boon has been the drawdown across the province, including the closure or transfer to Afghan forces of all but a handful of more than 200 foreign bases that picketed the Helmand river valley at the height of the 2011 troop surge.

Surveillance cameras, blimps, drones and infantrymen who patrol by vehicle and foot are some of the security assets now in more plentiful supply at these headquarters for the southwestern region of the International Security Assistance Force and Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan.

“I have been given enormous structure to defend this place,” said Col. Peter Baumgarten, commanding officer of the task force as well as the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Regiment.

Sometime before the end of this year, his task force will be lining up for the flight home — like all the other troops in the phased withdrawal. Regardless, “we will be able to defend this base until the end,” he said.

The American and British-run portions of the base complex are a city of warehouses, trailers, tents and aircraft hangars connected by paved streets and gravel roads, home to upward of 10,000 military personnel and civilians.

Indirect fire from rocket attacks is the most likely — albeit still uncommon — threat here, now that the 27-kilometer perimeter has been heavily fortified.

Not all the perimeter guard towers were staffed the night of Sept. 14, 2012, when 15 insurgents infiltrated the base and rampaged across the Camp Bastion flight line with rocket-propelled grenades and guns.

Marine generals overseeing the base and its air wing had assumed too much risk when weighing the need to project forces into the battlefield during a drawdown, versus protecting them at home base, an investigation leading to their resignations found.

All guard towers were manned after the attack. New measures to protect the base are continually added, such as trenches and repairs to the tall dirt berm that rings its length. Today, the base has well over twice the number of surveillance systems, from tower-mounted cameras to drones, as it did in 2012.

“It’s created an umbrella over the camp,” Baumgarten said. It may be a bit “big brother-ish,” he said, but it’s safer: “Whether you’re a Taliban, a shepherd or a dog wandering around the base, you will be detected.”

With the right analysis of information beamed to troops from a variety of surveillance feeds, “literally we could find a needle in a haystack here,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Doug Fraser, operations chief for Task Force Belleau Wood.

“The difficult part is determining who has ill intent and who doesn’t,” Fraser said. Even then, “we can’t just shoot people who cross a certain barrier.”

The British built Camp Bastion in a barren stretch of desert in central Helmand, where it would be protected by its isolation and long sight lines. As the base grew with the 2009 arrival of a Marine expeditionary brigade and follow-on units, settlers moved in to farm the fertile land created by its “Affluent River” of sewage. After the 2012 attack, those growers were evicted to prevent enemy forces from hiding among them.

Infantrymen patrol the open desert for miles outside the base complex, hunting for insurgents who would rocket the base if they could get close enough. They exchange gunfire with enemy forces several times a week and contend with roadside bombs on foot patrol.

During a Task Force Belleau Wood patrol Friday outside the perimeter, Marines newly deployed to the area got acquainted with the many defenses and potential threats surrounding the complex.

They stepped out of armored vehicles into drifts of fine red dust to walk across a former firing range. Metal tubes, a smattering of expended grenade rounds and blasted concrete barriers pocked the ground.

A small surveillance drone buzzed by. An Afghan on a motorcycle puttered in the distance. A pair of people stood on the tall dirt berm, peering at the Marines.

Are they innocent civilians or insurgents? Distinguishing the goat herders and metal scrappers from insurgents reconnoitering the base is an ongoing challenge.

“Motorcycles aren’t inherently bad,” said Lt. Col. Phil Ash, executive officer for the task force. But two people on a motorcycle recently blew themselves up after approaching a checkpoint elsewhere in the province manned by Georgian troops.

Interpreting certain signs, patterns of life and cultural norms is critical to base security. Afghan troops who soon must defend the complex on their own may not have the same surveillance arsenal at their disposal, but they have other strengths, the Marines said.

“They are natives to this area. They speak the language, they know the land. That is something that takes us time to acquire,” said Cpl. Charles Kristel, 23, of Schenectady, N.Y.

Cpl. Miles Vining, 22, of Washington, D.C., gives an example: An Afghan soldier who spotted a woman wearing tennis shoes knew a closer look was warranted, since Afghan women typically don’t have such footwear. A search revealed that it was a man in disguise.

The base complex will be turned over to the 215th Afghan National Army Corps before the end of the year, when the NATO combat mission is slated to end. Afghan military and government representatives are considering whether to shrink the base perimeter to make it easier to defend once the coalition is gone, or to add forces to the Afghan Corps headquartered at the Shorabak area of the complex.

A liaison team of Task Force Belleau Wood Marines mentors a company of Afghan soldiers who will lead base defense after the coalition leaves. The Afghans have received extra training against improvised explosive devices, as well as learning combat medical skills.

Another potential security breach on par with the 2012 Bastion attack might arise from a failure of imagination by base guards — one of the magnitude that made the U.S. vulnerable to attack by suicide hijackers flying planes into buildings, commanders said.

To stymie such evil genius, the task force’s “Dirt Track Red Team” tries to think like the enemy, anticipating not only what is possible, but also what is feasible and how to prevent it.

“It’s a test of wills” between the insurgents and the coalition, Baumgarten said. “We’ve got to be smarter than them.”

Their “council of kings” of young lance corporals concocts stratagems for attacking the base from inside and out. Most of their schemes have been video-game caliber, but they also dreamed up one truly brilliant idea the enemies would wish they had thought of first, Ash said.